My favorite law student – my son Mitch – just completed his first year of law school at George Mason University. He and his classmates soon will be starting the ego-bruising experience of interviewing to find their first legal jobs.
I remember those days well.
My first semester of law school was, by far, the most challenging one. I knew I wasn’t the smartest person in my class (that much was obvious) and hoped that I would not be the dead weight at the bottom. My grades after that first semester weren’t bad, but I was, nonetheless, terribly disappointed in the results.
I concluded that I would redouble my efforts during my second semester. If my grades didn’t improve, I would resign myself to the fact that I was a slightly above average law student.
With the renewed effort to my studies, something clicked in my head during that second semester. My grades improved significantly and continued to rise each semester.
But prospective employers were not impressed. While many of my classmates entertained job offers from multiple prestigious law firms, I received dozens of rejection letters.
My confidence waned. I questioned why anyone would even want to hire me and worried that I never would find a job. I envisioned myself unemployed, destitute, and ostracized.
Fortunately, I worried for nothing.
I landed a summer clerkship with a great small firm near the end of my second year. That summer, I received offers for judicial clerkships from two of the state’s most respected judges on the court of appeals. It has not always been easy, but over the next 30 plus years, I have made a career for myself.
In the course of doing so, I have learned a few truths about finding a job and building a career. Though my experience is in the practice of law, these principles apply to any career.
This post is longer than most of my offerings, so I have broken it into a number of pieces that will be posted over the next few weeks.
No. 1: You will find a place where you can succeed.
This first point does not directly discuss how to find a job but instead addresses that nagging voice in the back of your head questioning whether you should have gone down this professional pathway.
If you have done the work required to qualify yourself for entry to the profession (and you have), you have the tools to succeed. Your path ultimately may differ from what you initially thought it would be, but if you are focused and persistent, you will succeed.
Be confident. You alone are responsible for your own career path and professional success. The sooner you accept responsibility for your career, the sooner you will begin to succeed.
Focus on your strengths. Learn everything you can about a narrow area of the profession and become an expert in that area. Make the area of expertise narrow. Being a family law attorney is better than being an “experienced, aggressive lawyer” who, among other things, handles family law cases. It’s even better to be a family law attorney who represents doctors in divorce and custody matter.
Being an expert does not mean that you know more about the area than everyone else. It means that you know more about the area than most.
If you continue to hone your craft throughout your professional life, you just might come to know more than anyone else about your narrow area of expertise. The sooner you start down the pathway to expertise, the further down the pathway you will go during your professional life.
Move forward with courage. You have the ability to succeed.
(To be continued)